Protests Over Chemical Plant Force Chinese Officials to Back Down

Protesters who are opposing the expansion of a state-run Sinopec plant faced off against the riot police on Sunday in Ningbo, China.Credit
Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

BEIJING — Officials in the coastal city of Ningbo, China, promised on Sunday night to halt the expansion of a petrochemical plant after thousands of demonstrators clashed with the police during three days of protests that spotlighted the public’s mounting discontent with industrial pollution.

The protests, which followed similar demonstrations in other cities in the past year, point to the increasing willingness of the Chinese to take to the streets despite the perils of openly challenging the country’s authoritarian government.

Although local officials were undoubtedly alarmed by the size and ferocity of the protests, their decision to bend so quickly was also probably influenced by the coming series of meetings that will determine China’s next generation of leaders. The ruling Communist Party, always eager to keep a lid on public discontent, is especially nervous about any disruptions that might mar the 18th Party Congress, which is set to begin on Nov. 8 in the capital and will serve to ratify the first change of leadership in a decade.

But Ningbo residents reached by phone said they were skeptical of the government’s sudden change of heart. “The announcement is just a way to ease tensions,” said Yu Xiaoming, a critic of the plant who took part in negotiations with the authorities on Sunday.

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Credit
The New York Times

The protests, which began last week when farmers blocked a road near the refinery, grew over the weekend as thousands of students and middle-class residents converged on a downtown square carrying handmade banners and wearing surgical masks painted with skull and bones.

On Saturday, the demonstrations turned violent when riot police fired tear gas and began to beat and drag away protesters. At one point, according to people who were there, marchers tossed bricks and bottles at the police. At least 100 people were detained, according to some estimates, although most were later released.

The project, an $8.8 billion expansion of a refinery owned by the state-run behemoth Sinopec, was eagerly backed by the local government, which has been promoting a vast industrial zone outside Ningbo, a city of 3.4 million people in Zhejiang Province. Residents were particularly unnerved by one major component of the project: the production of paraxylene, a toxic petrochemical known as PX that is a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of polyester, paints and plastic bottles. Many residents contend that the concentration of polluting factories in the Ningbo Chemical Industrial Zone has led to a surge in cancer and other illnesses.

While mass demonstrations against mining operations, copper smelters and trash incinerators have disrupted Chinese cities in recent years, the construction of paraxylene plants has been especially controversial. In 2007, protesters in the coastal city of Xiamen, in Fujian Province, successfully forced the relocation of a PX plant that had been planned just 10 miles from downtown. Last August, officials in Dalian, in northeast China, announced that they would shut down a PX plant there after thousands of residents angrily confronted the riot police. That factory is still operating.

Ma Jun, an environmental activist in Beijing, applauded the government’s sudden about-face but said he hoped the weekend of unrest would convince Chinese leaders that soliciting public opinion on industrial development is in their best interest, especially given how much money is wasted when such projects are canceled midway.

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Many protesters opposing the expansion of a state-run Sinopec plant said they were wary of the government’s about-face.Credit
Reuters

“We’ve seen the same pattern over and over again,” said Mr. Ma, the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. “Ignoring public concerns leads to confrontation. We can’t resolve all our environmental issues through street action. The cost is just too high.”

Despite the best efforts of government censors, many of the protests have been fueled by social media. In Ningbo, residents held aloft smartphones and computer tablets and flooded microblog sites with images and vivid descriptions of the running battles with the police. The Chinese news media carried no reports of the protests.

In recent days, the district government of Zhenhai, which includes Ningbo, one of China’s most affluent cities, tried to reassure residents, saying the plant would include the latest pollution-control technologies. Officials also said they had spent nearly $1 billion to relocate 9,800 households away from the refinery site.

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In a brief statement posted on the government’s Web site on Sunday, officials said they decided to cancel the PX plant after consulting with investors. They also pledged to conduct “scientific verifications” on other elements of the project, although they provided no further detail.

The announcement appears to have done little to mollify popular anger. According to The Associated Press, an official who read the statement through a loudspeaker on Sunday evening was drowned out by the crowd, which then called on the mayor to resign and demanded the release of protesters who had been detained.

Later in the evening, several people posting on Sina Weibo, a popular microblog service, said the police were arresting students at Ningbo University and protesters on the street who had refused to disperse. The accounts could not be verified.

Correction: October 29, 2012

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the timing of an announcement by officials in Dalian. They announced that they would shut down a PX plant there in August of last year, not this year.

Patrick Zuo contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on October 29, 2012, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Protests Over Chemical Plant Force Chinese Officials to Back Down. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe